Tales From Talimara

The Enviro-Cities

By the time of the Age of Transcendence Earth had been rejuvenated into a lush fertile world. The environment was stabilized, global warming was defeated and in return we  incorporated nature's beauty into our civilization. The Talimaran enviro-cities of the west are among the most famous for their construction in harmony with the land, the trees and the sky.

In the western third of the North American continent stand the proud peaks of the Rocky Mountains. Thousands of years ago during the adventurous days of the American frontier, the settlers traveling west once gazed upon the formidable slopes of the beasts, coated in the green of conifers and the wispy white of snow beneath the blue of the sky. It must have truly been a wonderful time. Without technology, human lifestyles were much simpler. This primitive way of living was not something to be detested; rather, historians in the Age of Transcendence still say that there was a high level of contentment among the ancient American peoples as they ventured westward during the American expansion.

Over the centuries since the arrival of the Mayflower, the American Rocky Mountains have represented more than a simple geographical feature. They are hardly simple to begin with; the peaks of the Rockies are aptly named, with numerous crags and foothills saturated all over with creeks, rivers and wooded areas, dotted with boulders, stone formations and quarries in some places. The Rockies became the last great challenge for settlers before they reached the American Pacific Coast. The first generation of settlers found themselves encumbered by the mountains of the Appalachia in the east, and eventually, by finding a way through which became known as the Cumberland Gap, the settlers found themselves moving through the vast expanses beyond, which soon filled the old American Midwest.

The area known as the Great Plains of America would be known in future centuries and eventual millennia as the Talimaran Interior, while the venerable mountain range would retain its old name, being called the Talimaran Rocky Mountains after the old Canadian Republic was admitted into the Nation of Brilliance as new states. As the Ages of Ascension and Bliss began, the cities which had been built in the mountain range were slowly transformed into lush green eco-metropolises, united with the harmony of nature and wildlife. The architecture of these places was different from contemporary Talimaran normality. Whereas the glittering skylines of major cities like Cryaria, Charopolis, Sylcarmano and Ziridani were meant to embody a fresher type of natural look, the cities in the Rockies were built with and from nature.

Eventually they became known as the Talimaran enviro-cities of the west. In some districts the pristine white of technology is overgrown with the greenery of the land, carefully cultivated and cared for. In other places the city is built from natural materials, reinforced with support and imbued with technology. The grandest ones are constructed entirely out of colossal trees, living skyscrapers whose residents live in a musical type of harmony. In all, the enviro-cities have a timeless, elegant, rustic and charming feel. They make for superb views for commuters traversing the Talimaran Highway Network on approach to the Rockies. In old America, a popular patriotic song sang a line which went, "purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain," singing the glory of the Rockies which reigned above the peace of the Plains.

In the modern Age of Transcendence, they still stand in concert. A girl living in a country town might be examining a mindgate cuboid at night. And if she looked to the west, she would see the Rocky Mountains bathed in night with the moonlight- or the light of Interplanetary Quad- highlighting the silver of their snowcaps. And on their grand slopes, she would see the soft hush of light of one of the enviro-cities. Perhaps it is Martoa. Or Floridan. She cannot tell. The city glows, pulsating with both natural and artificial light, turning from gold to silver to bronze and back to gold again. The girl smiles. She knows the enviro-city is alive, and its inhabitants well at home in the mirth of nature.

She might want to live there one day, and grow beauty from the ancient salt of the Earth.